Colorado-Medical-Marijuana-Blog

Mason Tvert, a strong Colorado marijuana activist, made the news again recently as he credited his many years of careful strategy to the success of Amendment 64 being passed in Colorado this November. Tvert’s past strategies included actions such as crashing a law enforcement conference where he was booed by police officers and staging a news conference outside the Drug Enforcement Agency’s local office along with several cases of beer and a wanted poster with Governor Hickenlooper’s face on it. Tvert admits these strategies were mainly for effect but more to simply raise awareness for marijuana in Colorado. Other efforts included hiring a female Latino spokesperson to appeal to the Latino community. Tvert feels his efforts helped Amendment 64 gain the momentum necessary to give it a strong presence on the ballot in November and feels that the past eight years of effort helped raise awareness in such a manner that people are no longer seeing marijuana in Colorado as an illegal substance, but as more of a profitable business prospect.

The Colorado medical marijuana industry has experienced such a boom during the last few years that many dispensaries, patients and caregivers are finding themselves with a surplus of marijuana. This surplus has admittedly been a problem according to Colorado Drug Enforcement officials. Maintaining a handle on this surplus can prove to be a daunting task. Much of this surplus – in fact, most of it, is never reported and a great deal of it is now finding its way out of Colorado and into other states as the sources of this surplus seek to gain a profit from it. Law officials are finding themselves overwhelmed with arrests that result in illegal marijuana and sometimes other illegal drugs and weapons as well. While law officials are hard pressed to keep a handhold on an industry they believe is running rampant, industry supporters still maintain the validity, claiming medical marijuana to be one of the most highly regulated industries in the state.

With the laws in Colorado regarding medical marijuana dispensaries changing more often than a traffic light at a busy intersection, dispensary owners are finding themselves in a constant state of stress trying to keep themselves in compliance with regulations. And with those changing laws comes an influx of business owners to state agencies looking to renew licensing and keep in compliance, while agency workers are finding themselves overwhelmed with requests. Many business owners, after waiting nearly six hours in line at the Department of Revenue’s Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division, found themselves leaving without a renewal. With so many business owners rushing to comply with state regulations before cutoff dates, the state is finding it difficult to keep up with the demand for renewals. In light of this struggle to keep in compliance, most state officials are being lenient when it comes to those trying to update equipment and renew licenses per the new laws. However, some business owners still remain concerned that with all the strict rules being put in place, it may all be in vain if tighter security keeps customers away.

Although medical marijuana in Colorado
and some other states has been legalized, basic marijuana use across
the country continues to remain illegal. At a recent online town hall
meeting held at the White House, President Obama responded to
questions regarding the overall legalization of marijuana.

President
Obama’s reply, while jovial, was that legalization of the drug was
not a good economic strategy would probably not be useful in turning
the economy around. Marijuana legalization was a very small portion
of the overall discussion which included universal healthcare,
mortgages, education, the auto industry and veteran’s care. The
President hopes to hold more of these online town hall type
discussions in the future.

Although Colorado medical marijuana
laws may eventually fall under the same scrutiny as other states
across the nation, for the time being medical marijuana dispensaries
remain safe from the prospect of raids by the Drug Enforcement
Administration.

As directed by Attorney General Eric Holder, federal
agents will concentrate their efforts mainly on distributors who
violate both state and federal laws. Medical marijuana growers
adhering to state laws will not be a priority of the new
administration. This is a step away from the policies of the old
Presidential administration which tended to target all medical
marijuana growers.